Parole jumper didn't warrant raid on Osage house
Police Commissioner Gregore Sambor knew for nearly a year about an outstanding warrant for MOVE member Frank James Africa for a parole violation but refused to help parole agents arrest him at the MOVE house in West Philadelphia.
Police Commissioner Gregore Sambor knew for nearly a year about an outstanding warrant for MOVE member Frank James Africa for a parole violation but refused to help parole agents arrest him at the MOVE house in West Philadelphia because it was "a sensitive issue," according to a state official.
"He (Sambor) refused to act because he felt that to go in and arrest Frank James Africa was a sensitive issue," said Yvonne Haskins, district superintendent of the state Board of Probation and Parole.
Haskins made her comments yesterday when the Daily News contacted her after learning about the outstanding warrant against the MOVE member.
Although Haskins said the refusal to help arrest Africa was made by a spokesman for the commissioner, she added she was "sure the position not to apprehend" came directly from Sambor.
Sambor could not be reached last night for comment.
Haskins' statements contradict those made by both Sambor and Mayor Goode as early as last August and as late as May 1 that MOVE had done nothing to justify a police raid on its barricaded West Philadelphia compound.
Goode had been criticized by Osage Avenue neighbors and some community leaders and lawmakers for not taking action against MOVE last year before the group could fortify its rowhouse further against a police siege.
During Monday's shootout, police had trouble trying to destroy a heavily fortified bunker that was built only recently atop the two-story MOVE compound.
To destroy the bunker, police dropped a "concussion device" that led to a fire that raged out of control, destroyed 53 houses and left about 250 people homeless.
Eleven bodies, presumably MOVE members, were found in the rubble of the MOVE house. Frank James Africa is believed to have been in the compound during the police siege.
Last August, during a tense day-long standoff between MOVE and police, Goode was quoted as saying he decided against a police raid on MOVE at that time because he, Sambor and other city officials "have talked about this among ourselves and we did not find any reason or basis to - quote - make a move against MOVE. Unless we have a legal cause, we have no right to (take action against the group)."
And Sambor was quoted as saying, "There have been no major misdeameanors or major felonies at this time . . . "
On May 1, after complaints by Osage Avenue neighbors about the city's lack of action against the group, Goode reportedly responded by saying he had no legal basis to take any action against MOVE because, "We do not perceive that there is any violation on which we can make an arrest."
But Haskins said her office notified police a few days after Africa was declared a parole "delinquent," on May 23, 1984, an action that resulted in the placing of Africa's name in the crime computers and the issuing of an arrest warrant.
Frank James Africa was paroled in October 1982. He had served nearly four years of a seven-year prison term for rioting, possessing an instrument of crime and making terroristic threats in an incident a year before the August 1978 shootout at the group's Powelton Village compound.
His parole was to end in May 1987.
Haskins said Africa stopped making his required reports to his parole officer in 1984, but the agent knew he was living at the barricaded MOVE compound on Osage Avenue.
When the parole officer, without a police escort, went to get Africa, Haskins said, he was refused entrance to the house by MOVE members, thereby allowing Africa "to disappear behind that door."
